Pardew Hails Wickham And Kane

21 January 2016

Alan Pardew has praised Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane as "the best striker in the Premier League," as well as hailing Crystal Palace's Connor Wickham, ahead of Saturday's Premier League meeting between the two sides.

Spurs visit Selhurst Park this weekend, with Kane having already scored 15 goals in all competitions this season. Palace are in need of a win after a four-game run without a goal in the league, but the return to fitness of Wickham is a big boost, according to Pardew, with the 22-year-old striker getting minutes against Aston Villa and Manchester City.

"They've got the best goalscorer, in my opinion, in the Premier League, and I include [Jamie] Vardy in that. I think Harry Kane is the best and we're going to have to try to stop him," he said.

"If Harry Kane was in our team we'd be in the top four, if I'm honest," added Pardew. "That's the difference a striker of that quality can make.

"What we have is a player in Connor Wickham who is not too dissimilar in age from Harry Kane and he's still trying to learn how to play going through the middle of the pitch. Him coming back to us is a huge lift.

"Forget anything else about [the defeat at] Manchester City," he continued. "The biggest factor in that game was that Connor is back and he produced a good number nine display. If he gets goals on the back of his displays, we're going to have ourselves a really good player and we can start talking about Connor Wickham and not Harry Kane!"

You can watch Alan Pardew's full pre-match press conference for free HERE.